You won’t agree with the BBC’s list of the 100 greatest guitar riffs of all-time

The guitar riff in Jet’s ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ is officially better than the riff in Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust for Life’ – even though they’re basically the same. That startling revelation is just one of the many things to be learnt from the BBC list of the 100 greatest guitar riffs of all time.

Unsurprisingly Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ topped the poll, prompting a virtuoso performance in false modesty from guitarist Jimmy Page. “I’m knocked out by this, because I didn’t expect that to happen,” he somehow managed to say without smirking. “I wanted a riff that really moved, that people would really get, and would bring a smile to their faces. But when I played it with the band, it really went into overdrive. There was this intent to have this riff and the movement of it, so it was menacing as well as quite sort of caressing.”

While the list was dominated by your (gran)dad’s favourite bands, a few youngish whippersnappers including Arctic Monkeys, Queens of the Stone Age, Franz Ferdinand, Blur and Foo Fighters also made the cut. And apparently Joan Jett and Kim Deal are the only people without a Y chromosome to write a memorable riff. There are 99 riffs better than Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ but just 24 riffs better than The White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’, including Guns ‘N’ Roses’ ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’ and Status Quo’s Coles jingle ‘Down Down’.

The list of 100 riffs was selected by a panel of music industry experts including Radio 2 and 6 Music DJs, music critics and record producers.